Sunday, 6/7

NYT 11:26
BG 7:55
PI 7:50
LAT 7:20
CS 3:30

Jeremy Newton's New York Times crossword, "Shifty Business"

I'm pressed for time, as I have 6:00 dinner plans involving IHOP. The evening meal at IHOP always puts me in a quandary: breakfast for dinner or dinner for dinner? If only they still sold the corn cakes that I loved so.

Jeremy Newton's theme is, I believe, gears that might be found in a car. Now, my gearshift has park, reverse, drive, and neutral, with a couple more "you really need to bother with this?" options off to the side. My car doesn't advertise first, second, third, fourth, or fifth gear—but those are rebus entries in this puzzle, along with reverse and neutral, but no ordinary drive. It's quite possible that car/crossword buffs will be knocked out by the locations of the rebus squares. Are those circled rebus squares laid out like they are in the sort of car that goes to fifth gear? I have no idea. It is hard to marvel at something if you don't know whether it's marvelable.

Without further ado, the theme entries (which can be entered in the puzzle most quickly by just using the first letter of the rebused word):

• 33A/5D. FIRST: [Teacher's question at the start of show-and-tell] is WHO'S {FIRST}? [Witnessed] clues SEEN {FIRST}HAND.
  
• 35A/10D. THIRD: [Anticipate heading home] is GO TO {THIRD} BASE, and [Finish last on "Jeopardy!"] is COME {THIRD}.
  
• 38A/15D. FIFTH: [Endings for Shakespeare] are {FIFTH} ACTS. SAKS {FIFTH} AVENUE is clued with the trivia, [It opened in Manhattan in 1924].
  
• 67A/48D. NEUTRAL, right in the middle: [Doesn't care either way] clues TAKES A {NEUTRAL} STANCE. [It freshens the air] points you towards an ODOR {NEUTRAL}IZER.
  
• 98A/67D. SECOND: [At once] means right THIS {SECOND}, and a THIRTY-{SECOND} SPOT is a [TV advertising staple.
  
• 101A/102D. FOURTH: [Some summer feasts in the U.S.] are JULY {FOURTH} BBQS. [Hardly commendable] clues {FOURTH}-RATE.
  
• 103A/84D. REVERSE: This spot held me up for a solid minute. BACK side and BACK play? FLIP side and FLIP play? Nope, it's the gear REVERSE. [Where to sign a credit card, e.g.] is the {REVERSE} SIDE, and to [Trick the defensive line, maybe] is to RUN A {REVERSE} PLAY. The latter clue sounds footballish, but I don't know what a reverse play is at all.

A handful of non-theme clues before I sign off:

• [Direction from Hannover to Berlin] is OST, German for "east." Great twist on the usual blah NNE, SSE, etc., direction answers.
  
• [Practice requirement?] is the BAR EXAM you must pass in order to practice law.
  
• Who knew there's a SABINE that's a [Texas/Louisiana border river]?
  
• Right below SABINE is HYMNAL with a clever clue: [It's bound to be used in a service], as in hardbound book, church service.
  
• [Where an M.I.A. might be] is a P.O.W. CAMP. If any of you have got M.I.A. loved ones who never made it back from a war zone, you have my sympathy.
  
• "OK, THEN" and ["Alrighty"] are both things I say. Perfect pairing of clue and answer.
  
• [___ Reuters, media giant] clues THOMSON, which my husband used to work for about a decade ago. Wow, does publishing pay small salaries to a lot of people.
  
• I have seen many a [Donation receptacle], but I've never called anything an ALMS BOX.
  
• [Place for matches at home] is the GAME ROOM. I nearly attempted to coin FIRE ROOM.
  
• The N.Y. TIMES is a [Big Apple daily, in brief].

Updated Sunday morning:

Yikes, I've blown most of the morning and have four puzzles to blog about? Yeah, I'll be giving short shrift to them all.

Mike Peluso's syndicated Los Angeles Times Sunday crossword, "Taking the Bite out of the Dog"

The dog says "GR" and that's what's been taken out of assorted phrases to create each theme entry. I liked this theme a lot, particularly these answers:

• 23A. OVER CLEVELAND is president Grover C. minus his GR. [About to land in northern Ohio?] is the clue.
  
• 106A. I know the CIA's precursor, the OSS, from crosswords. So I liked OSS NEGLIGENCE, or [WWII intelligence oversights?], for rewarding that crossword knowledge.
  37D. APES OF WRATH are [Angry gorillas?].
  
• 76A. EEK MYTHOLOGY is clued as [Traditional ghost stories?].

Highlights in the nonthematic parts of the puzzle:

• 85A. "GET A ROOM!" is a [Facetious suggestion to public kissers]. Terrific, colorful answer!
  
• 88A. RONDO is clued with [Mozart's "___ Alla Turca"]. You know how I know that music? From the Baby Mozart video when my son was wee. Here's a 6-year-old girl playing it on piano.
  
• 91A. I should read "Jabberwocky" sometime, shouldn't I? TOVES are [Badgers, in "Jabberwocky"].
  
• 104A. A [Qom inhabitant] is an IRANIAN. Not an IRANI! Yay for correctness!
  
• 42D. Crosswordese stalwart STELE gets a trivia clue I haven't seen: ["O Rare Ben Johnson" is engraved (in error) on one]. Should be spelled "Jonson," hence the error.
  
• 44D. [Brother in a hood?] is a FRIAR. Hah!
  
• 84D. HOLSTERS are [Piece keepers?].

I do want to take issue with 60A. [Dentist's number?] as a clue for OPIATE. Dentists typically use local anesthetics (which are not OPIATEs) to numb you up. For more involved procedures, you might be sedated, but I don't think that involves OPIATEs either. Now, if they prescribe Vicodin for postop pain, that's an OPIATE, but that's for pain relief, not for numbing.

(PuzzleGirl wrote about this puzzle at L.A. Crossword Confidential too.)

Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer crossword, "Woof Gang"

The theme is "Merl's grab bag of dog-breed puns":

• 22A. [Exercised one's doggies?] clues WORKED OUT THE PUGS. That's a pun on what, exactly? Oh, I see: "worked out the bugs."
  
• 46A. [Doggie races?] might be DACHSHUND DASHES. This must bea pun on the "dots and dashes" of Morse code, but that doesn't feel ike an "in the language" basis for wordplay, does it?
  
• 73A. LOX AND BEAGLES, playing on "lox and bagels," could be a [Name for a doggie deli?]. Would this be a doggie deli for cannibalistic dogs? "Food & Customers" is not the customary way to name a deli. "Pizza and Boys," "Ribs and Women"—see, that wouldn't work at all.
  
• 97A. Bernard Malamud ponies up BERNARD MALAMUTE as a [Doggie author?]. This one's my favorite because we read a Malamud novel in high-school English.
  
• 122A. AFGHAN WILL TRAVEL plays on "have gun, will travel." The clue is [Ad placed by a restless doggie?].
  
• 32D. "A holy terror" turns into A HOLY TERRIER, or [What the priest's doggie was?].
  
• 43D. Melancholy, baby? That generates MELANDCOLLIE, or MEL Brooks AND a COLLIE—[Photo of Brooks with his doggie?].

The fill included some unfamilar names. 4D is [Entertainer Theodore] BIKEL, which rings a faint bell. 94D is ["The Group" co-star Joanna] PETTET not only doesn't ring a bell, it denies that bells ever existed. Same with 113D CRAIN, [Actress Jeanne of "A Letter to Three Wives"]—and both PETTET and CRAIN cross the [Grandpa Walton portrayer], Will GEER. If you don't know him, you're kinda stuck Googling these people, aren't you? There's also 55D AKBAR, an [Indian emperor of 1600], crossing OLEA, the [Olive genus].

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's Boston Globe puzzle, "Rhyming Game" (delayed Across Lite edition)

Each theme entry takes a two-part, four-syllable rhyme and adds another word that rhymes, creating made-up phrases that are clued accordingly. For example, [Research into bores?] might be FUDDY-DUDDY STUDY, and [Not much of a hat?] is a TEENY-WEENY BEANIE.

In the fill, I learned a new word: [Nuque] is the French word for the NAPE of the neck. There's a cognate in the anatomical term nuchal, which means "of or relating to the nape of the neck." Now, that doesn't explain why an unfamiliar French word is used to clue an English word in this puzzle.

I filled in ALIEN for [Little green man] before I made it over to [Men in green], so I still had Martians on the mind and needed all the crossings to get CELTS. [Supersonics site] is an anachronism now—the SEATTLE Sonics moved to Oklahoma and were renamed the Thunder.

Rich Norris's themeless CrosSynergy/Washington Post "Sunday Challenge"

Easy clues overall meant that I finished this puzzle quickly, which is a shame because so many of the 9- and 10-letter answers are so fabulous—the puzzle has just the sort of fill you hope to find in a themeless puzzle. Among the best:

• FLASH DRIVE is a [Compact storage device]. I like the tech answers that didn't even exist a few short years ago, but now are common parlance.
  
• "EASY DOES IT" is a [Reminder to stay cool] and not stress out too much.
  
• The DUST JACKET of a book is a [Synopsis site].
  
• DAYS OF YORE were [Knight times]. I like the day/(k)night echo.
  
• I love MENTAL NOTE. [It's not written down].
  
• In your car, a [Dash alert] is an IDIOT LIGHT, an indicator light that tells you when something is amiss or empty.
  
• A [Bit of reality?] is a great clue for DOSE—as in "the newspaper delivered a dose of reality."
  
• DAISY DUCK is a [Love interest of Gladstone Gander]. Now, is he a duck or a goose?
  
• STAY TUNED is an exhortation to ["Keep it where it is"], "it" being the TV channel setting.

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Thursday, 11/6

NYT 9:something, maybe
Sun 5:40
LAT 3:26
CS 3:08

(updated at 9:50 a.m. Thursday)

Hoo-wee, am I sleepy! And it's not even time for the NYT crossword yet. Could be the wine over dinner, could be the latish night watching election returns last night, could be a nascent case of narcolepsy. Time will tell.

The Sun crossword by Patrick Blindauer is called "OO7," with two letter O's rather than two zeroes. Each theme entry is a phrase with an O in which that O gets doubled to change the sense—and there are seven of these answers.

• The Mod Squad becomes [Cheerleaders?], or the MOOD SQUAD.
  
• A pop quiz slaughters the crossword breakfast test with its double-O making it POOP QUIZ, or [Test on which to use a number two pencil?]. Get it? "Number two"? This one gave me the juvenile giggles.
  
• Slop bucket transforms into SLOOP BUCKET, or [Pail for bailing out a single-masted vessel]. (Eh. That one's not so zippy.)
  
• Hot pants morph into HOOT PANTS, or [Trousers for Woodsy Owl?] Woodsy Owl's big catchphrase in the '70s was "Give a hoot, don't pollute." My kid's learning about conservation, recycling, global warming, etc., in third grade right now. He's chiding me any time I turn on a lamp when it's not pitch dark out, and demands that we use those spiral fluorescent bulbs. (Dude, we have three rooms lighted by those bulbs. Cut your parents some slack.)
  
• NOON SMOKING is clued as [Having a midday menthol?], and the theme answer derives from non-smoking.
  
• Stopgap measures turn into STOOP GAP, or [Entrance stairway discontinuity].
  
• Lop-eared bunnies become [Like people with hoops in their lobes], or LOOP-EARED.
  

I've been dozing off while writing about the Sun, and starting to type things from my dreaming brain. So I'd better sign off on the Sun now, and think about caffeine.

Well, it's about 45 minutes later, and I didn't manage to wake myself up. Man! It is challenging to work through a New York Times puzzle with rebus action when your eyes insist on closing. Somewhere in Jeremy Newton's puzzle, either I have an error or I didn't hit on the right character to fill a rebus square and make the applet happy. So I give up. I'm too tired.

The gimmick is rebus squares containing numbers and words that represent the standard playing cards, from 2 through 10 and then JACK, QUEEN, KING, and ACE. Alas, in the NYT applet, the JACK square isn't circled. Here are the theme entries:

• 1-Across is SUIT, [What the 13 circled things in this puzzle constitute]. As in diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs— a suit.
  
• The middle entry has a cute traffic jam of four rebus squares in a row: WOR[KING] 24/7, or [Never idle]. The crossings are PAR[KING] SP[ACE], [TWO]-YEAR-OLD, V-4'S ([Some engines]), and SALE[S EVEN]T. That PAR[KING] SP[ACE] also intersects with SURF[ACE] AREA, or [Full coverage?].
  
• A [Pound delivery] is a CA[NINE], crossing [Like many office jobs], or [NINE] TO [FIVE], which in turn crosses the BEST OF [FIVE] [A.L. or N.L. Division Series format].
  
• MP[THREE] PLAYERS cross IN [THREE]-D.
  
• ["Scratch that!"] can be rendered as "86 it," so the theme entry's [EIGHT][SIX] IT. This crosses [EIGHT]-MAN, or [Like squads in arena football] (... if you say so), and [SIX]-SHOOTER, [Something that may hold up a train].
  
• Steve MC[QUEEN] was the [Actor known as the King of Cool]. He crosses RED [QUEEN], ["Through the Looking-Glass" protagonist].
  
• ["Bad Girl" singer] LATOYA [JACK]SON is missing the circle for her playing card. She can handle this unfortunate wardrobe malfunction and goes on with the show, crossing [JACK] UP, or [Hike].
  
• [Barefaced] means patent, or PA[TEN]T. It crosses ROT[TEN].
  

I'm heading to bed now. If you spot my error in the grid, please leave it in comments, Thank you, and good night.

Updated:

Joy Frank's LA Times crossword negates the theme entries by appending an UN to the beginnings of actual terms:

• [Saltine gone bad?] is an UNSAFE CRACKER.
  
• [Castle in the air?] is an UNREAL ESTATE.
  
• [Skier Picabo before a big race?] is an UNEASY STREET.
  
• [Flawed methodology?] is an UNSOUND SYSTEM.
  

Cute theme. My favorite clue here is [You might enter one for money]. A raffle? A lottery? A strip club? A bank vault? Nope—a PIN, as in the personal identification number you key in at the ATM. Great clue!

Ray Hamel's CrosSynergy puzzle, "That's the Ticket," ends five theme entries with words that can precede ticket:

• BANANA SPLIT is an [Ice cream treat], and a some voters fill out a split ticket.
  
• [McDonald's purchase] is a HAPPY MEAL (meal ticket).
  
• [1968 hit for the Zombies] is a song I don't know, TIME OF THE SEASON. Hardcore sports fans with money buy season tickets.
  
• [Bragged] means TALKED BIG, and a Mercedes is a big-ticket item.
  
• FREE PARKING is (a) a godsend in a big city and (b) a [Monopoly space]. Parking tickets are not godsends—unless, of course, you're a city planner trying to figure out how to fund the operational budget.
  

This is LATOYA Jackson's biggest day ever in crosswords. She's a theme entry in the NYT and 10-Down in this puzzle? I hope she knows people in cities where these puzzles are published, because what else has her career brought her lately? Elsewhere in the fill, a REEFER is a [Coat similar to a pea jacket] and not a marijuana joint. It could've been clued [1936 exploitation film "___ Madness"], too.

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Sunday, 9/14

NYT 13:03
BG 10:27
PI 8:35
LAT 7:55
CS—see 9/12 post

(updated at 1:25 p.m. Sunday)

Yow! Jeremy Newton's Sunday New York Times crossword, "Year-Round," was hard. I can't say it was fun, but it was definitely a challenge...and it will likely bring many stumped solvers to crossword blogs when they cry "uncle" and turn to Uncle Google. There's no theme, per se, just a rebus gimmick—there's a circle of rebus squares that contain abbreviations for the months of the year. The only hint a solver has about which entries have rebuses is having enough of them filled in to see that the rebus squares appear in symmetrical spots, and that the months are in order clockwise from 11:00.

The clues were sometimes inscrutable. The January rebus appears at the junction of these two:
• [Native tongue of R&B singer Rihanna] is BAJAN. Bajan is "an English-based creole language spoken by persons on the West Indian island of Barbados."
• [Paris was part of it] refers to the TROJAN ARMY. Not Paris, France. Not Paris Hilton. Not Paris, Texas.

Right there, I think many solvers might cry foul/uncle. If you're not a linguist or a big Rihanna fan, do you know anything about Bajan? I sure didn't. Moving to February:
• [It's darn likely] refers to a SAFE BET. No, it's not trying to make you think of darning holes in socks.
• [Possible punishment for steroid use] is a LIFE BAN.

If you're lucky, you cottoned to the rebus there, figuring that SA*ET and LI*AN couldn't possibly make words with a single letter in their intersection. The month of March is here:
• [Wise guy] is a SMARTY. Alec and guru and sage are all 4 letters long, which may have mucked things up for a lot of folks.
• [Mustang rivals] sounded like college football to me. Is that SMU? What's another Texas team? Well, no. Wrong turn. The Ford Mustang's rivals include Chevy CAMAROS. Do they still make Camaros?

April was a little easier for me, as the pattern was beginning to reveal itself:
• [Genre explored by Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith] is RAP-ROCK. A rather old-school clue for the genre, no?
• [Lucratively] means AT A PROFIT.

The merry month of May is here, unabbreviated:
• [Cancun resident, once] is an ANCIENT MAYAN.
• ["Quite possibly"] sounds a little more certain than IT MAY BE.

Moving along to June:
• [Thrill seeker] is an ADRENALINE JUNKIE. Terrific entry in and of itself.
• [Like some professors] is ADJUNCT.

Things heat up in July:
• [Drinks in frosted glasses] are MINT JULEPS.
• [Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Pulp Fiction"] is named JULES. Royale with cheese, anyone?

The dog days of August nearly defeated me, since DRAFT fits into five squares perfectly, as does its alternate spelling with a 3-letter rebus. Why wasn't I looking for somewhere to put AUG? It's my birthday month and everything. Drat!
• [Beer serving in a pub] is a DRAUGHT. I guess "pub" is supposed to signal Britain and a more typically British spelling...but we have plenty of pubs in America, too.
• [Filled (with)] is incredibly vague, and FRAUGHT more commonly has that sense of anxiety that plain old "filling" lacks.

September means it's back-to-school time. Are you feeling a bit like you're in the wrong class?
• [Nativity figure] is JOSEPH.
• [Wages, before overtime] is BASE PAY.

Above that SEP was HACK, clued as [Symptom of catarrh]. Who uses "hack" as a noun when referring to a hacking cough or hacking up phlegm? Next to a rebus square, a more approachable clue was called for. October adds a gnarly scientific word:
• [Boils down] clues DECOCTS. Not only is it a scientific sort of word, my dictionary labels it "archaic."
• [Professional with many contacts?] is an EYE DOCTOR. Fun clue! However, a straight clue would have been kinder, what with the DECOCTS crossing.

Are you waiting for the new year because this year has been too long? November arrives:
• [Cry at sea] is MAN OVERBOARD.
• [Pop singer who appeared in the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"] is DONOVAN.

The twelfth month of the year is December:
• [Experts at exports] are TRADE COMMISSIONS. Hey! That's not a fun phrase at all. Adrenaline junkies, where are you? We need you here.
• [Biker's add-on] is a SIDECAR.

Let me get this stuff posted, and I'll be back after supper with more on the non-rebus fill. Okay, I'm back. Here are other clues and answers that made this puzzle a bit of a gnarly beast:

• [Singer who once said "At least I had one guy who understood me"] is YOKO ONO. Did you know she's on Facebook? She's listed as a friend of someone affiliated with Wordplay. I'll bet her Facebook status updates are deep.
  
• [Diurnally] equates to A DAY in a sentence like...wait, does it equate? The only sentences I can come up with swap "diurnally" for "once a day" or "each day."
  
• Two clues point rather obliquely at words meaning "huge": [Economy-size] is GIANT and [Worth mentioning] is BIG. BIG appears right near a rebus square, its clue making that zone a bit more difficult.
  
• [Pattern for light or sound] is a SINE WAVE. This one's between the OCT and NOV rebuses, and perhaps a more specific clue would have been helpful here.
  
• [It appears when things go bad] is MOLD on your spoiled food. I like this one. Not the mold—the clue.
  
• [Some exams for joint pain sufferers] are BONE SCANS.
  
• [Focused (on)] is DWELT. Maybe an addendum to the clue would have helped, such as [Focused (on), as a ____], whatever it is that one dwells on filling the blank.
  
• [Were present?] clues ARE, the present tense for the past tense "were." I like that. (Elsewhere in the puzzle, WAS is clued [Is past?].)
  
• [It's usually said with the eyes closed] is ACHOO. Uncle foul! First, it's in a rebus zone and doesn't need to make that area more difficult. Second, if you're sneezing, you are not saying achoo. You're emitting a sound, which may or may not sound like "achoo," but you're not saying anything. Betcha $5 that a lot of people opted for something like GRACE here. Right below ACHOO is MOTOR, clued as [Kind of skill]. No, no, no. MOTOR is not a skill. "Motor skills" are a kind of skills. Again, an unimpeachable and accessible clue would have been a kindness to solvers.
  
• A [Wig] from a few centuries ago is a PERUKE. I love the word, but suspect it's not universally known or beloved.
  

And those were just the Acrosses! In the Down direction, we have these items to note:

• [Basic travel path] is A TO B. All the other ATOB clues in the NYT have been easier. Crossing BA[JAN], this clue is borderline cruel.
  
• [Unlikely event for Puritans] is an ORGY. That one's not so hard—I just wanted to include it in my post. If the Puritan folks are modern-day members of the GOP, the clue may be inaccurate. (Kidding! Or am I?) Right next to the ORGY is MOM ([MADD member]). "Mom? What are you doing here?"
  
• [Like some modern maps] put me in mind of GPS systems and the splendor that is Google Maps, but that's the wrong path. The answer is GENOMIC.
  
• [Members of the bar?] clues SOTS. I think I've seen that clue before, and I don't care for it. Heavy drinkers are not "members" of a tavern.
  
• [Early Chinese dynasty] came to me only through the crossings: WEI. ("No way!" "Wei!")
  
• [Admit defeat, in a way] is PUNT. Is this football or metaphor?
  
• [Euripides drama] is ION. Wait, wait, wait. It's a common science term, the name of a Saturn car, the name of a new TV channel, the first name of post-Communist Romanian president Ion Iliescu—and this tough puzzle tosses us one of Euripides' lesser-known plays? Ow.
  
• [Lookout, maybe] is ABETTOR, but it could also be spelled ABETTER. The decisive crossing is the aforementioned ACHOO.
  
• [Now, in Nogales] is the Spanish word AHORA. Have you seen any Spanish-language ads exhorting "Llame ahora"? That's "call now."
  
• [Genealogical grp.] offered little help in the ACHOO zone—it's FAM. as an abbreviation for "family." 
  

So, how'd you enjoy your journey through this puzzle?

Updated:

You know what? Expectations have a lot to do with enjoyment. If Will Shortz promised us one Sunday puzzle a month that was tougher than the others, I would look forward to it and say "Hooray!" when it appeared. When it's only a rare crossword that's a difficulty outlier, I'm not expecting it and that can throw of my enjoyment-o-meter. The placement of 12 rebus squares in exactly symmetrical spots is an impressive accomplishment indeed, and the added limitation of putting the months in order surely made this one a bear for Jeremy Newton to construct. That said, there wasn't any inherent humor in the theme, so while I appreciate the solving challenge and intricacy of the construction, it wasn't really a funny crossword.

I had more fun with Matt Gaffney's latest contest crossword. The weekly/self-published nature of the contest allows Matt to be more topical and timely than other daily or weekly crosswords. Alas, I have not yet been the randomly chosen correct entrant who wins the signed book. Hey, that's OK. I already have a signed Matt Gaffney book as well as two or three others unsigned.

This week's Merl Reagle crossword, in the Philadelphia Inquirer and other papers, called "Initial Investigation," focuses on an unusual theme: 5-word phrases whose initials form a 5-letter word, with both the phrase and the initials word clued.

• [What often goes untold / Starting gaits?] clues THE REST OF THE STORY and TROTS.
  
• [Free-drink line / Cap's place] clues THIS ONE'S ON THE HOUSE and TOOTH.
  
• [Arlen-Mercer classic / Water hazards?] clues COME RAIN OR COME SHINE and CROCS. Crikey, did you know Chicago has had 6+ inches of rain this weekend? I think a front is churning in place and dumping lots of rain. For the first time in my memory, the Chicago River has crested.
  
• ["Explain, please" / Aromatic oils] clues BE A LITTLE MORE SPECIFIC and BALMS.
  
• [1999 Pierce Brosnan film / A familiar cord?] clues THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and TWINE.
  
• ["Oh, great!" / Corrupt] clues THAT'S ALL I NEED TODAY and TAINT.
  
• ["This is as far as I go, kiddo" / Dingbats] clues YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN, SON and YOYOS.
  

Hmm. I don't know how long it would take me to generate a comparable list of phrases that yield initial words. WTF isn't a word. AFAIK (as far as I know) is a fairly common online abbreviation, but it's not a word either. How on earth did you come up with these theme entries, Merl? I want to know.

Newish constructor John Lampkin's syndicated Los Angeles Times Sunday crossword is called "Feature Features" because each of the eight theme entries is a phrase that ends with a word that relates to movie-making. The clues use movie titles to recast the phrase as if it pertains to that particular movie. To wit:

• UNSPEAKABLE ACTS are [Segments of "Silent Movie"?].
  
• MATCHING SET is a ["When Harry Met Sally..." studio construction] because romantic matching occurs in that movie and is depicted on the set.
  
• A LITTLE EXTRA is a [Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz"?]. My mom's friend Anne's parents were little people, and they knew many of the people who were, in fact, extras playing Munchkins in that movie.
  
• BILLIARDS CUE is clued as [Prompt in "The Hustler"?], a movie about shooting pool.
  
• DOUBLE TAKES could be [Footage from "Twins"?]...although in that movie, the "twins" in question were not at all doubles. Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Not doubles.
  
• BASKETBALL SCORE is [Music for "Hoosiers"?].
  
• FISHING LINES is clued as [Dialogue from "A River Runs Through It"?]. Brad Pitt fly-fishing, photographed with loving attention by Robert Redford as if he were the second coming of Redford. He was very golden and radiant in this movie.
  
• CEMETERY PLOT is a [Storyboard for "Poltergeist"?]. Did a cemetery figure into that movie? I don't remember one.
  

I like this theme. The oddest bit of fill is HERM, a [Four-sided monument named for a Greek god]. Wikipedia uses herma as the singular. Gotta love a square pillar with a head on top and the, uh, frank and beans carved on one side. [Contest in a dohyo] is SUMO; perhaps dojo and dohyo are cognates. [Canine neighbor] is the PREMOLAR; yay, dental terminology! [Stirrup problems?] is the clue for EARACHE, but I don't know that the tiny stirrup bone is at all involved in any earache. Those have more to do with the eardrum, the Eustachian tube, fluid, and pressure. [Beef] is CARP and [Per ___] clues DIEM—look at those words divided by a black square in the grid. It's like a secret subliminal message, "Carpe diem." My favorite clue is [Holy smoke] for INCENSE. Favorite fill: THE DISHES, [Something to do after eating].

I heard through the grapevine that Elizabeth Gorski was filling in for Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon for a few weeks of Sunday Boston Globe crosswords. Can you Bostonians confirm? The Across Lite edition of these puzzles is weeks behind, so I haven't seen Liz's byline there yet. Speaking of Liz Gorski, it's time for more of her puzzles in the New York Times! A few years ago (2003), she had more than 20 NYTs in a single year, and we've only had five this year. Will Shortz, are you holding out on us? Give the people what they want!

This week's Boston Globe crossword in Across Lite is by Henry Hook. I don't know about you, but I kept making very reasonable choices that turned out to be wrong. Is my Hook mojo on vacation, or was this one rather tough? "Tie-ins" is a straightforward enough theme—TIE is inserted into various phrases, which are clued accordingly. For example, [Sleepwear designer's task?] is DRAWING NIGHTIE. The results can be droll: My favorite theme entries were CAPRI PATIENTS, or [Some who seek out il dottore?]; FORTIETH COMING, or [Dreaded realization to a 39-year-old?]; and HONG KONG FLUTIE, or [Asian quarterback?]. That last one's perfect for a Boston newspaper, as Doug Flutie was a hotshot college player there.

This puzzle has plenty of excellent fill—EXORCISM and JACLYN Smith, YAMMERS and KHAKIS, MADCAP and a yummy BANANA SPLIT. Not to mention ORANGE (hello!), clued as [C source], and "BY GUM," clued as ["So help me!"]. There are also some gnarly bits: SAMARA is a [Volga valley city]. [With 8 across, 1961 song hit] clues BRISTOL / STOMP (huh?). [___ a pistol] led me straight to PACK A, but I needed to have HOT AS. MEIFUN is a [Rice-noodle recipe]. [Crystal known for cracks?] has nothing to do with quartz—it's BILLY Crystal with a fun clue.

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Sunday, 6/15

LAT 11:22 with two-way kibitzing
NYT 7:21
BG 7:10
PI 7:03—The Across Lite file has some cut-off clues; you can get a printable puzzle with complete clues on this page
CS 3:56

NYT Second Sunday puzzle, "Missing Links"—untimed, but pretty quick

When I updated the Saturday post and said I was solving and blogging on the phone, it was a long call with a good friend. I finished the Saturday update around 5:30, when the Sunday NYT was already out—and then spent another three hours on the same call. I'm marking Father's Day weekend by having the house to myself! It's luxurious. I need to edit a paper...just as soon as this post is done. First things first!

You see that new thing atop the sidebar to the right? That is a handy-dandy function programmed by Dave Sullivan (known 'round these parts as "Evad"). Solvers who prefer to solve the NYT puzzle in the newspaper or in Across Lite can enter their solving times (and I will trust you to be honest) and see how they stack up against others, without having to use the NYT's applet. In a few days, there'll be another thingamabob like this for the New York Sun crossword, which doesn't have any sort of daily standings functionality. The NYT one resets when the new puzzle is released online, same as the applet. The Sun standings will reset...I'm not sure when. Early morning, perhaps?

I believe the Sunday New York Times puzzle marks yet another constructor's debut, and a fine debut it is. Jeremy Newton's crossword is called "Did You Get the Memo?" and the theme centers on the "Re:" subject line of a memo. Each theme entry is a phrase that starts with a word beginning with RE, and the RE is severed from that word and changed to an "Re:" component:

• [Memo about Stephen King's "Christine"?] is RE: POSSESSED AUTO.
  
• [Memo about an inveterate perjurer?] is RE: LYING ON INSTINCT.
  
• [Memo about a dating guide?] is RE: PAIR MANUAL.
  
• [Memo about where tariffs are imposed on incoming ships?] is RE: PORT FOR DUTY.
  
• [Memo about stores for animal appendages?] is insane: RE: TAIL OUTLETS. I cannot envision shopping at a tail outlet. I just can't.
  
• [Memo about a religious outpost for prisoners?] is RE: CON MISSION.
  
• [Memo about why to buy an air purifier?] is RE: MOTE POSSIBILITY. This one's my favorite. I have plenty of mote possibilities here at home.
  
• [Memo about a lyricist?] is RE: VERSE ENGINEER. Reverse-engineer is a fairly fresh phrase for a crossword, and turning a poetic type into a "verse engineer" amuses me.
  

So, I liked the theme, but would you look at the fill? Jeeze, there are 21 7-letter answers and a pair of 8s. And I like the cluing vibe, too. The best 7s include:

• OH HENRY, or [Candy bar whose name is an exclamation]—a great answer.
  
• NIAGARA, or [Falls on the border]—a wonderful clue. I sought a verb for way too long, it seemed.
  
• PG-RATED, or [Like many nonanimated Disney films].
  
• NUTCASE, or [Loon].
  
• TYRANNY, or [Rule before a revolution, maybe]. Again, I was looking for a verb but needed a noun.
  
• OLD NAVY, or [Clothing chain since 1994]. I have a neighbor who was in the Marines about 40 years ago. He's got a t-shirt that says OLD MARINE, in classic Old Navy style.
  
• POOL CUE, or [It may be used for banking]. More the geometry/basic physics sort of banking, not financial.
  
• TRINARY means [Threefold]. For my money, this was the toughest fill in the puzzle, and there were no obscure names or ungettable words to stymie everyone. This one doesn't belong in my"best 7s" list, but I didn't want it to be lonely in its own paragraph.
  

Gary Disch's second Sunday NYT puzzle is a "Missing Links" puzzle. There are three 9x9 grids with Scrabble-type linked words in them. The solver's job is to add the 15 letters below each grid to make longer words. I've seen similar puzzles in Games magazine, and had fun with these. If you're stuck and looking for a few hints, here are some in white text. (Highlight text with your mouse to reveal.) In grid 1, you'll need to add letters in rows 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Row 7 will contain the word BANSHEE. In grid 2, rows 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9 receive added letters. There will be no blank squares in the top row and the rightmost and leftmost columns. In grid 3, rows 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 get new letters. Rows 2 and 7 will have no blanks.

Updated:

Bonnie Gentry's syndicated LA Times crossword, "Bandleaders," appears in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, so my husband grabbed a pen and set to work. Then he began the trash talk, claiming he would finish before I did. Then I downloaded the puzzle and set to work. He's still working on it. (Hee hee!) The "Bandleaders" theme includes eight phrases that start with words that can fill in the blank in "___ band":

• [Heisman winner, e.g.] is a BIG MAN ON CAMPUS, and there's big band jazz.
  
• [Ritual favorite written by Mendelssohn] is the WEDDING MARCH (wedding band—which can be both a gold ring or a band that plays at the reception).
  
• [Bosses of bosses] are HEAD HONCHOS, and you can wear a headband.
  
• [They may go either way] refers to SWING VOTERS (swing band—see big band, above).
  
• [Deferential approvals] are RUBBER STAMPS (rubber band).
  
• [Vigilante's action] is a CITIZEN'S ARREST (citizens' band, or CB radio).
  
• [Compete at Petaluma, once] is ARM-WRESTLE, and you can wear an armband along with that headband.
  
• [Shibboleths] are WATCHWORDS (watchband of a wristwatch). Shibboleth, you probably know but I didn't, is from the Hebrew Bible.
  

The trickiest answer in this puzzle for this non-Pennsylvanian and non-radio buff, is the [Longtime Pittsburgh radio station] KDKA? What? A station east of the Mississippi that starts with K rather than W? Turns out it's one of a handful of exceptions to the rule. Its last letter was a crapshoot—the crossing clue is [This, in Toledo]. The answer is ESTA, but could it just as easily be ESTO if you don't know your Pittsburgh radio call letters? Spanish speakers, help me out here. Favorite fill: CHEEZ-IT crackers.

In Merl Reagle's Philadelphia Inquirer puzzle, "But Hey..." is the phrase that precedes a bunch of other phrases in colloquial English. For example, WHO'S COUNTING or SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT. Given the lack of specificity of the theme clues, the crossings need to be easy enough to point solvers in the right direction—and they are. Except for those clues that are goofed up in the Across Lite version:

100-Down. [Porter tune] should be [Cole Porter tune], per the version on Merl's website.
101-Down. [of Sid's 1950s co-stars] should be [Sid's 1950s female co-star].
102-Down. [rs] should be [Abhors].
104-Down. [mo replay] should be [___-mo replay].
106-Down. [s about] should be [Knows about].
107-Down. [cakes] should be [Rich cakes].

Fun crossword theme!

This week's Across Lite rerun of the Boston Globe crossword is constructed by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon. The "Long Division" theme comprises a dozen entries occupying six full rows of the grid. The four shorter theme entries involve division by numbers, while the others divide a word by another word. [Theater ÷ 1 = Neolithic] is STONE AGE: the word STAGE divided by the number ONE, cryptic crossword style. [Chief ÷ 9 = emaciation] is BONINESS: BOSS divided by NINE. The non-numeric divisions work the same way. [Shop tool ÷ priest = amphibian] is SALAMANDER, a LAMA inside a SANDER. Nifty theme, no? I'm guessing that Henry and Emily looked for theme entries made up of TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, and SEVEN, but found no words that consisted of those numbers surrounded by another stand-alone word. My favorite name for a body part is in the fill here: the PHLTRUM is the [Upper-lip groove] between the lip and nose. Doesn't it sound like it should be an old brand name?

Randolph Ross's themeless CrosSynergy "Sunday Challenge" is fairly easy as themelesses go. [Castor's slayer] would have been much harder for me, but it evoked a previous NYT clue, [Argonaut who slew Castor], that brought this blog a ton of search-engine traffic. IDAS! It's you again, with a different clue! You can't fool me, mister. IDAS crosses HAD A.C. (air conditioning), or [Was ready for the heat, for short]; that HADAC is sort of iffy as a crossword entry. The [1975 U.S. Open tennis champ] ORANTES was an answer for which I needed every single crossing. But aside from those spots, it was all pretty reasonable. Favorite clues: [A Hamburger's one] is EIN ("Hamburger's" is the possessive here, not the contraction of "Hamburger is"); ["Theatre of the Absurd" luminary] for Eugene IONESCO, the playwright who penned Rhinoceros; [Smallest bone in the human body] for STAPES, the wee stirrup in the middle ear; and [German Hermann] for writer Hermann HESSE.

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